You’ve got to be quick if you want to catch Rye Players 2024 panto Treasure Ryeland. It’s the final performance of the season on December 20 at RNLI Rye Harbour. Donations raised by the shows are going to the lifeboat charity.
The nautical theme continues throughout this year’s panto with shanties performed by Martin Bruce on his squeezebox. Martin is on and off stage during the show, and he even entertains the audience during the interval too.
There have already been performances of Treasure Ryeland at Beckley, Camber and last Saturday December 14 at the Tilling Green Community Centre in Rye where a packed audience sang along with the cast, pretended to be trees and / or iguanas, and shouted “behind you” at top voice. Just as it should be.
The team on stage really go for it too. Not least because Paul Johnson’s script is full to the gunwales with laughs, puns, and (with some of the show set on a ship called the Leaky Bottom), a fair bit of innuendo.
Tricorn hats off to Gareth Ward as pirate Long John Saliva, Richard Moore playing Dame Hawkins and her dreamboat hero, real life helmsman Stu Clark as Captain Smollett. Xan Kite plays a pirate too – with a cheeky puppet - and Jasmine Tortello-Myers keeps things moving brilliantly as the narrator and principal boy, Jim.Treasure Ryeland is directed by Paul Thomas and produced by Sandi Bain.
Finally, the youngest member of the cast makes a big impression too. Well done to Kenzo Drummond as Flint the Parrot. A star in the making.
Here’s to next year Rye Players!
